ESO: The Best Necromancer Builds for PvP

Magcro DPS Build (Best for Fighting in a Group PvP) 

Race: Dark Elf (or Khajiit) | Mundus: Lover / Apprentice | Food: Solitude Salmon Millet Soup or equivalent (5395 health, 4936 magicka), and Bewitched Sugar Skulls is a more expensive option for better survivability with additional recovery (4620 health, 4250 magicka/stamina, and 462 health recovery). | Attributes: 64 Magicka

The Magicka Necromancer is great for PvP in either groups or in 1v1 scenarios. Even 1vX scenarios work in their favor due to their heavy AOE burst damaging abilities. Magcros are all about timing, so once your rotation is ironed out and you can really thread the needle with Blastbones and activating your own Avid Boneyard synergy, you’ll be conquering Cyrodiil with ease.

For race we have gone with Dark Elf for their high spell / weapon damage as well as their increased 1910 magicka and stamina, which helps our magicka damage as well as our survivability to break free and move around. The 4620 flame resistance is a nice perk as well to help take much less damage from most magicka player’s flame staves and their abilities as well. Khajiit can work amazing as well with their 915 increase to all stats, extra recoveries, and increased critical damage and healing by 12%. 

Skills

As a Magcro, many buffs are dependent upon corpses such as Mortal Coil or Mystic Siphon, so knowing where enemies and allies have fallen to activate these skills is very important. Keeping up Summoner’s Armor and then casting Spirit Guardian will keep your resources more manageable, as Summoner’s Armor reduces the cost of all of your Necromancer summon abilities while providing you with the 5948 resistances from Major Resolve and Major Ward. Plan on setting up combos of Stalking Blastbones coming after the 2.5 second delay with activating your Avid Boneyard synergy (jewelry must have harmony trait for the best effects), and your Shooting Star ultimate to cause some massive AOE burst. 

Armor & Weapons Build (5 light – 1 medium – 1 heavy)

Easy starting set alternative: 5 Law of Julianos (craftable), 5 Spinner’s (from Malabal Tor), 2 Monster Set / Willpower Set

Necropotence (from Rivenspire) works great for Necromancers as you will always want to have your Spirit Guardian up for it healing you as well as transferring 10% of the damage you would take to it instead. With the Spirit Guardian active you gain a whopping 6,420 magicka, which really helps you not only deal more damage but manage your sustain overall with ease. 

Heartland Conqueror (craftable) increases the effectiveness of your weapon traits by 100%, helping both your front bar and backbar hit some very high numbers. Your sharpened staff will double from 3,276 to 6,552, helping you shred through your opponent’s resistances. Your powered backbar 1h will jump from the healing boost of 9% to 18%, helping all of your healing skills to bring you back up to full health in no time.

Finally Kjalnar’s Nightmare (from Unhallowed Grave) acts as either a source for crowd controlling an opponent or dealing heavy damage. After hitting an enemy with a light attack 5 times, an undodgeable skeletal hand attacks them after 1 second, knocking them into the air and stunning them for three seconds. If they cannot be stunned they instead take a hefty sum of magic damage. This set is great to play around as you can time your other abilities to all set off on your opponent whether they are locked down with the stun or have taken the magic damage, either way they are in some high water when this ability pops off. 

Champion Points – Essentials in Order

Warfare: 20 Eldritch Insight, 20 Precision, 50 Biting Aura (slot), 50 Fighting Finesse (slot), 20 Elemental Aegis, 20 Hardy, 20 Blessed, 50 Untamed Aggression (slot), 20 Flawless Ritual, 30 War Mage, 50 Arcane Supremacy (slot)

Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Ironclad (slot), 50 Slippery (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian, 30 Piercing Gaze

Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot), 50 Breakfall, 30 Out of Sight

Stamcro DPS Build (Best for Fighting Solo PvP)

Race: Orc (Wood Elf or Khajiit) | Mundus: Lover or Thief | Food: Garlic Cod with Potato Crust or equivalent (5395 health, 4936 stamina) and Bewitched Sugar Skulls is a more expensive option for better survivability with additional recovery (4620 health, 4250 magicka/stamina, and 462 health recovery) | Attributes: 64 Stamina

Stamina Necromancers have great survivability and deal amazing AOE and single target damage as well. Stamcros can be a menace in PVP, especially given that they can not only fend for themselves with their kits, but also provide teammates with healing through their Spirit Guardian. For race we have chosen Orc for their ability to sustain their health very easily as they heal for 2125 once every four seconds when dealing damage, and their other bonuses give great utility as well.

With an extra 1000 health and stamina, Orcs also gain 258 weapon and spell damage, helping their damaging skills hit much harder. Finally they also have a 12% reduction in the cost of sprinting, and move 10% faster while they run. All in all you can weave in and out of combat more easily and deal high damage while sustaining your health when you decide to go in for the kill. Other races that provide stamina bonuses like Wood Elf, Khajiit, or Dark Elf work great for Stamcros as well.

Skills

For 1v1 scenarios, you want to make sure to cast Pierce Armor on your enemy to help reduce their mitigation before you start dishing out your damaging abilities onto them. Buffing up with Summoner’s Armor followed by your Spirit Guardian and a Resolving Vigor will help keep you healthy as you enter the fight. Timing your Blighted Blastbones to hit your target right after you debuff them with pierce armor can take some practice to get the gap closing correct, as we don’t have a built in gap closer ability.

Hold off on your Dawnbreaker if you have knocked down your enemy recently, as they will be immune to CC for around six seconds more or less depending on what your opponents champion points are set up to be. Blighted Blastbones into a Dawnbreaker along with Avid Boneyard synergy activation is devastating, so grouping up enemies and taking them all down at once should be manageable unless they are fairly tanky. 

Armor & Weapons Build (5 medium – 1 heavy – 1 light)

Easy starting set alternative: 5 Hunding’s Rage (craftable), 5 Spriggan’s Thorns (from Bangkorai), 2 Monster Set / Agility Set

We use Heartland Conqueror (craftable) for the same reason we use it in the Magcro build, the 100% in weapon trait potency is very effective both offensively and defensively. Our Sharpened greatsword will have 6,552 penetration over the usual 3,276, while our infused 1 hand back bar will have 60% potency instead of just 30%. The extra 129 weapon / spell damage and 1096 stamina and magicka from this set will also help to increase our damage while managing our resource pools.

Our second set is Ancient Dragonguard (craftable), which works as both an offensive and defensive set. Giving 1206 health, 129 weapon / spell damage, and 657 weapon critical, this set has a lot built in to help us in a number of ways, but the 5 set bonus is great as it changes depending on our health. You gain 300 weapon and spell damage when above 50% health, and when below that you gain 3460 physical and spell resistance which helps to maintain you while you work on gaining your health back. 

For our front bar set we are using (Perfected) Frenzied Momentum (from Vateshran Hollows) which gives us weapon damage as well as burst damage. When Rally is active, casting stamina abilities in combat generates a stack that increases weapon damage by 38 up to a max of 5 stacks. Once you hit max stats, your next heavy attack consumes them and releases an explosion around you scaling off of your weapon or spell damage, depending upon whichever is higher. The extra 190 weapon damage is very nice at full stacks, and timing your abilities to hit with a heavy attack burst explosion is a great way to finish off enemies.

Our final set is our backbar weapons, being the (Perfected) Puncturing Remedy (from Dragonstar Arena), which require the use of Pierce Armor to activate. When you deal damage with Pierce Armor, you heal for an amount over 5 seconds based off of your max health and you gain resistances equal to that number. This is great for boosting up your resistances while also gaining a nice heal out of it as well, with the added bonus that your enemy now has both Minor and Major Breach applied to them, reducing their physical and spell resistances by 8,922 in total. 

Champion Points – Essentials in Order

Warfare: 20 Tireless Discipline, 20 Precision, 50 Deadly Aim (slot), 50 Duelist’s Rebuff (slot), 20 Hardy, 20 Elemental Aegis, 50 Untamed Aggression (slot), 20 Battle Mastery, 30 Mighty, 50 Wrathful Strikes (slot), 20 Blessed

Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Ironclad (slot), 50 Slippery (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian, 30 Piercing Gaze

Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot), 50 Breakfall, 30 Out of Sight